The Coding Network

Ingenious Med and The Coding Network have partnered to provide our clients with the expertise and services of two industry leaders.

Partnership Overview

The Coding Network, LLC was established in 1995 with the concept that accurate professional and facility coding plays a mission-critical role in today’s healthcare providers’ revenue cycle. Accurate coding is pivotal to improving reimbursement and is an essential component of compliance. The company’s founders and owners, Mark Babst and Neal Green, have a combined 60+ years of experience in the medical billing and coding arena.

Coding Education Package

Ingenious Med and The Coding Network partnered to create a coding education package for new and current Ingenious Med customers. The coding education can be delivered by TCN’s inpatient coding experts, both online and in person, depending on the needs of each IM customer. The Coding Network is the nation’s leading coding education and auditing company, and TCN’s vast experience and expertise across multiple specialties allows IM and TCN to provide these coding education services to virtually all Ingenious Med licensed users. Ingenious Med and The Coding Network have worked together to create a curriculum that incorporates Ingenious Med’s IMPOWER and IM MasterCoder solutions in conjunction with The Coding Network’s coding training process. This process results in improved coding and charge capture performance across the Ingenious Med customer base.

All of The Coding Network’s training programs are specialty-specific, and TCN suggest the training programs be held as single specialty presentations. Holding specialty specific training programs assures the physicians in the audience that everything being discussed will be pertinent to them. The Coding Network has developed proprietary, specialty-specific workbooks that include the E & M codes, critical care, the dictation of a useful operative report, and TCN’s Director of E & M Coding and Auditing Division personally performs all on-site training presentations. The E & M training sessions generally cover a substantial amount of material, so, if desired, TCN will work with the practice’s leadership to customize the training presentation specifically to the client’s needs.

Coding Audit Package

Ingenious Med and The Coding Network have created a coding audit package that the Coding Network will provide to current Ingenious Med customers, either upon renewal, or on an ongoing basis. The coding audit package is delivered by TCN’s inpatient coding experts according to TCN’s proven and time tested specialty-specific audit process. Each audit will include the input of each customer’s Ingenious Med Account Manager. Those Ingenious Med customers who wish to engage The Coding Network to perform an audit can simply contact their IM Account Manager. IM and TCN are working together to ensure that your coding is accurate, compliant with all of the laws and regulations, and captures all of your billable services.

Coding accuracy and compliance audits aim to keep physicians and coders up to speed in a highly technical and dynamic field by providing periodic “peer reviews” to ensure that the organization’s coding skills remain high and accurate. Both the OIG and CMS recommend that all providers have their coding reviewed by an outside independent party with appropriate expertise in that clinical specialty, on a regular basis. The purpose of these reviews is to obtain an unbiased independent evaluation of the provider’s coding and to ensure its accuracy and compliance with current laws, rules, and regulations. Only an independent review can serve to identify errors and misconceptions regarding coding, as well as, ensure that coding regulatory updates (i.e., new/modified codes, new/modified coding edits and bundling rules, etc.) are being incorporated into the provider’s coding protocols. Feedback is essential for a program of “continuous quality improvement” to prevent errors from becoming “institutionalized.”

Physician Documentation Training

Ingenious Med and The Coding Network have created a physician documentation training package, which the Coding Network will provide to new and current Ingenious Med customers. The physician documentation training package is delivered by TCN’s inpatient coding experts, both online and in person, utilizing TCN’s proven methodology for optimizing physician documentation practices. Physician documentation training sessions will be available for a multitude of specialties, and each training session will aim to meet the various needs of each IM customer. Those Ingenious Med customers who wish to engage The Coding Network for physician documentation training sessions can simply contact their IM Account Manager. IM and TCN are working together to that physician documentation is accurate, compliant with all of the laws and regulations, and supports the coding levels for each patient encounter.

The Coding Network’s experience at so many private and academic and hospital-owned practices leads them to anticipate that the quality of the reports and medical records that constitute the source documents for coding may be suboptimal. Across all specialties, TCN often finds documentation deficiencies in the various source documents. The first step in eliminating this problem is training the physicians and mid-level providers on proper medical record documentation. TCN’s goal is not to turn the doctors into coders, but to give them the information and tools they need use every day to accurately and completely report their services. There is no limit to the number of physicians and staff who can attend The Coding Network’s documentation training presentations. TCN has developed their own specialty-specific workbooks that include the E & M codes, critical care, the dictation of a useful operative report, and the teaching physician requirements.

Coding Services

All physicians, surgeons, hospitals and ambulatory surgical centers need accurate medical coding and surgical coding for proper payment, but specialists are most acutely in need of precise coding to optimize their collections. Medical school faculty practice plans, hospitals, ambulatory surgery centers, billing companies, and private medical practices of all sizes are among the many clients of The Coding Network. These organizations realize that proper medical coding and surgical coding directly relates to increases in their own bottom lines and compliance with the law.

The cost of contracting with The Coding Network is easy to calculate. One fee covers everything. All you need is the number of operating room surgeries (or the number of Evaluation and Management encounters or other specialty services) the physician provides in an average month. Importantly, fixed overhead expenses must be paid day-in-and-day-out, whether the doctors are busy working or away on vacation. Compare this to The Coding Network; which works on a per-case basis. TCN transforms what was a fixed overhead expense into a much preferred variable operating expense. TCN’s clients only pay for what they need. If, for any reason — a doctor is away or the surgery schedule is slow — then the client’s coding costs also decrease.

Laws and regulations are constantly changing (for example, in 2010 there were 24,060 new active pairs and 19,083 terminated pairs in the revised NCII 16.0 data set). Coding must be consistently accurate for all providers across all locations and for all specialties. The Coding Network’s core competency is accurate coding. The company’s entire corporate management and every one of their subspecialty coders serve as each of The Coding Network’s clients’ own personal Coding Department.

The Coding Network gives clients immediate access to specialty-specific certified coders who are experienced and highly skilled in 55+ clinical specialties and subspecialties of surgical coding, medical coding, and radiology coding. The Coding Network provides coding services for clients in 50 states, in addition to Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands. TCN’s per-case structure is cost effective, as they don’t require any minimums.

Ingenious Med and ICD-10

CMS will transition all diagnosis codes from the ICD-9 system to more than 65,000 codes included in the ICD-10 version on October 1, 2015. This change will impact every system, process and operation that uses a diagnosis code. Most health care facilities that will be affected by this change are not yet prepared and without having a plan now they are at risk of losing time and money later. Time is running out. Ingenious Med has the solution.REQUEST A DEMO HERE.